Many homes and businesses suffer from infestations of allergens and other undesirable organic and inorganic substances, such as molds, viruses, bacteria, and dust mites. Floor coverings such as carpeting in homes and hotels, for example, can contain a high concentration of organic or inorganic substances which create a potentially unhealthy or harmful environmental condition. A common indoor allergen in carpeting and mattresses that can trigger allergy symptoms in humans is the dust mite, a microscopic insect related to spiders. It has been claimed that allergies developed in the early years of a child's life due to exposure to allergens can result in life-long allergic responses or more serious medical conditions such as asthma. Exposure to mold spores, for example, has been linked to certain types of respiratory illnesses. Long term exposure to mold can cause asthma or other respiratory problems, even in individuals who are not naturally sensitive or allergic to mold.
Conventional cleaning methods do not effectively reduce populations of infestation agents present within carpeting. Standard vacuum cleaners do not sanitize or disinfect carpeting and vacuuming alone usually removes only a fraction of allergens from carpeting. Typically, steam cleaning is cumbersome, expensive, and can involve the use of chemicals. Also, steam cleaning can leave a carpet and its carpet pad in a wet condition that can support the undesirable growth of molds, mildew, bacteria, or dust mites in or beneath the carpet. As another alternative, chemical powders or dry carpet cleaning powders comprised primarily of chemical pesticides and insecticides can be used to clean carpeting. The potential health and safety hazards associated with such chemical powders, however, often outweigh any benefits that might be obtained by using them.
Many experts have suggested that the only solution to dealing with infestation agents in carpeting is to remove existing carpeting altogether and to refrain from using carpeting as a floor covering. However, for many individuals who find carpeting desirable, and for many applications where carpeting is an optimum choice for a floor covering, this is not an acceptable solution. As a result of the inadequacy of conventional carpet cleaning methods, however, carpeting in homes and commercial establishments can become an ideal environment in which dust mites, germs, bacteria, viruses, molds and other pathogens or microorganisms can live, grow, and multiply.
In addition, mattresses and other like articles are often afflicted by infestation agents. By the nature of how a mattress is used for rest or sleep, it is frequently in close contact with humans or animals that can shed dead skin, for example, or discard other organic substances that are retained in the mattress. Insects such as dust mites can thrive on this organic matter and quickly develop into a significant population within the mattress. As described above for carpeting, conventional cleaning methods applied to a mattress cannot both safely and effectively reduce populations of infestation agents present within the mattress.
Prior art ultraviolet (UV) handheld units either do not use a proximity sensor to determine if UV light is irradiating a cleaning surface, or use a proximity sensor which disables the UV sensor immediately when a proximity sensor senses that the cleaning surface is too far away. The handheld UV unit without the proximity sensor can be dangerous for an unwary user. The other prior art handheld UV units can be very frustrating to use on uneven surfaces. Even more frustrating is that once disabled, a UV lamp may take two or more seconds to turn back on. This can be due to a safety feature or that an electrical ballast used in light most UV lamps can take that that much time to turn the UV bulb on. There exists a need for a handheld UV unit that uses a proximity sensor but which delays a disabling of the UV lamp for a predetermined time or when the distance between a cleaning surface and the UV lamp is less than a predetermined distance.
In view of the problems described above, safe and effective disinfecting devices are needed to address the deficiencies of conventional processes for sanitizing cleaning media such as carpeting and mattresses.